Human specimens – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

Who gets to decide for the dead, such as this Egyptian mummy? AP Photo/Ric Feld

April 6, 2018

Rights of the dead and the living clash when scientists extract DNA from human remains

Chip Colwell, University of Colorado Denver

Are DNA samples today's version of the human skeletons that hung in 20th-century natural history museums? They can provide genetic revelations about our species' history – but at an ethical price.

The ‘immortal’ HeLa cells. Heiti Paves/Shutterstock

May 24, 2017

Decades on from Henrietta Lacks, we’re still struggling to find an adequate consent model

Maninder Ahluwalia, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Henrietta Lacks's 'immortal' cells changed medical research – although she never knew that.

This clay facial reconstruction of Kennewick Man, carefully sculpted around the morphological features of his skull, suggests how he may have looked alive nearly 9,000 years ago. Brittney Tatchell, Smithsonian Institution

May 20, 2016

Kennewick Man will be reburied, but quandaries around human remains won’t

Samuel Redman, University of Massachusetts Amherst

A 9,000-year-old skeleton became a high-profile and highly contested case for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. How do we respectfully deal with ancient human remains?

A morbid curiosity makes it hard not to be fascinated. Yelp Inc.

April 8, 2016

Reconsidering Body Worlds: why do we still flock to exhibits of dead human beings?

Samuel Redman, University of Massachusetts Amherst

You don't have to be a physician or anatomist to be curious about how bodies work. Exhibits of dead human specimens have been around for quite a while – capitalizing on our fascination with death.

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